Speed trumps scrutiny as lawmakers race to pass N49.7trn 2025 budget

In the last few weeks, the National Assembly has been like a marathon field, as lawmakers raced through the N49.7 trillion budget defence with the speed of a sprinter, but not with the scrutiny expected from such a critical task.

While the urgency was driven by the need to uphold the cherished January-to-December budget cycle, the glaring lack of scrutiny raises concerns.

BusinessDay observed several defence sessions where heads of Ministries, Departments, and Agencies (MDAs) were given scant time to explain their budget estimates as lawmakers appear keen on meeting their January 31 passage deadline, than interrogating budget items and asking tough questions.

For instance, Bosun Tijani, Minister of Communications and Digital Economy, was barely into his presentation before the Joint Committee on Information and Communications Technology (ICT) and Cybersecurity when Shuaib Afolabi Salisu, Chairman of the Senate Committee, interrupted him.

Salisu, who was clearly eager to move on to the next item on his packed schedule, asked the minister to summarise his presentation due to limited time.

“Please summarise, we have competing committee meetings. You are lucky to even have this number of lawmakers attend your budget defence,” he said.

After the presentation, the chairman restricted the number of questions from lawmakers, but Senator Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghan, who is a member of the committee objected, highlighting the need to scrutinise the budget items, especially as the minister demanded more funds.

But her objection was overwhelmingly overruled and the session was brought to a close.

Similarly, during budget defence by Adebowale Adedokun, director general of the Bureau of Public Procurement (BPP) before the House of Representatives Committee on Public Procurement, lawmakers hurried the session and limited the questions.

Unyime Idem, chairman of the committee assured them that they would rather consider Adedokun’s request to increase the bureau’s budget by over 2000percent.
The consequences of these speedy defence sessions are beginning to unfold. A contentious allocation that has sparked public outrage is the ₦8billion earmarked to “sensitise Nigerians on the need to pay electricity bills” which scaled through legislative approval with minimal scrutiny.

Another instance is the revelation that the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) spent ₦1.1billion on meals and refreshments in the 2024 budget, a figure that lawmakers themselves passed without raising concerns during last year’s review.

Lawmakers have largely blamed the late submission of the budget for the rushed defence sessions. President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, who has expressed his commitment to maintaining the budget cycle, presented the 2025 budget to the National Assembly mid-December 2024. Upon resumption of plenary on Tuesday, 14 January, both the House of Representatives and the Senate suspended plenary to oversee the budget defence sessions with the goal of passing the budget by 31 January.

After about two weeks of defence sessions involving approximately 150 MDAs, the National Assembly began collating reports on Wednesday, 22 January.
The Policy and Legal Advocacy Centre (PLAC), has however, observed that good budgeting practice requires that the President present the budget to the NASS three to four months to the end of the year, to enable legislators do a thorough job.

Section 11(1)(b) of the Fiscal Responsibility Act, 2007 also stipulates that “The Federal Government must, not later than four months before the commencement of the next financial year, cause to be prepared and laid before the National Assembly a Medium Term Expenditure Framework for the next three financial years.”

Some National Assembly staff also highlighted how budget defence sessions, which used to take up to four months, have now been condensed into just weeks. This trend, coupled with late budget submissions, has led to oversight gaps.

Last year, lawmakers complained that the 2024 budget was presented late which gave MDAs limited time to defend their spending plan. Some even said they were not adequately aware of the content of the budgets they approved and passed.

Kingsley Chinda, minority leader of the lower chamber, emphasised that unless budget estimates arrive on time, legislators would always struggle to scrutinise the budget in public interest.